Psychoeducational Assessments
Clear answers about how you or your child learns, thinks, and focuses, and what's getting in the way.
In-person assessments in Halifax, with interviews and feedback sessions available online anywhere in Nova Scotia.
"We've tried everything, and things are still a struggle."
People come to us for psychoeducational assessments for all kinds of reasons. A report card that doesn’t match the effort. A kid who’s bored in class and coasting. A teen who’s falling behind and nobody can say why. An adult who needs documentation for university or work. What they have in common is a wish to stop guessing and know what they’re working with.
We take the time to understand the whole picture, so you leave with answers and a plan that is tailored to you.
Let’s start with a conversation.
Psychoeducational Assessments | Halifax & Membertou, NS
Why Choose A Psychoeducational Assessment?
You can throw a lot at a learning problem: tutors, extra time, new routines, and still be no closer to knowing what’s going on. A psychoeducational assessment tells you what’s happening. It’s our most thorough look at how a person learns, thinks, and focuses, and it covers cognitive ability, academic skills, and executive functioning together, so the results make sense as a whole.
Using interviews, observations, questionnaires, and standardized tests given under controlled conditions, your psychologist builds an age-referenced profile of how you or your child think, learn, and behave, and explains where the struggles are coming from. It can identify ADHD, specific learning disorders in reading, math, and written expression, intellectual disability, and the traits associated with giftedness. It also screens for anxiety, depression, autism, and behavioural concerns like oppositional defiant disorder, and autism testing can be added on when that’s part of the question.
Not sure this is the right assessment? Our intake team will help you find the right next step.
Meet Our Team
Match With a Psychologist
in Membertou or Halifax, NS
Our psychoeducational assessments are completed by registered psychologists with years of experience assessing ADHD, learning disorders, intellectual disability, and giftedness. They’re part of the same team that provides therapy at both of our locations and online across Nova Scotia, so the people who assess you and the people who support you afterward already know each other.
Registered (Candidate) Psychologist
Registered Psychologist
Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology
Psychoeducational Assessments | Halifax & Membertou, NS
A Psychoeducational Assessment Can Identify:
Learning Disorders (Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia)
Reading, writing, or math that stays hard no matter how much help you’ve tried. We pin down what’s going on and what helps.
ADHD & Attention
Inattentive, hyperactive, and combined-type ADHD, along with focus, follow-through, working memory, and executive functioning. Cognitive testing is included, so recommendations are built around how you take in information.
Giftedness
Kids who are bored and coasting, and adults who’ve always been quick but uneven. We identify the traits associated with giftedness and provide documentation for extended programming where it exists.
Intellectual Disability
A clear reading of cognitive ability and adaptive skills, so the right supports can follow at school, at home, or at work.
Mixed Strengths & Struggles
Doing well in some subjects and sinking in others, with no obvious reason. Our team is here to figure out where the difference comes from.
Post-Secondary & Career Planning
A better understanding of how you learn before you pick a program, change direction, or take on something new.
Accommodations at School or Work
The documentation you need for an Individual Program Plan, a university accessibility office, a workplace, or an application for academic or government-funded support, written to meet what they ask for.
Adult Underachievement or Late Diagnosis
For adults who’ve always felt one step behind without an explanation or spent years wondering why school, work, or organizing a day has always been harder than it looks, a psych-ed assessment can clarify things.
Psychoeducational Assessment | Halifax & Membertou, NS
Why Choose East Coast Psychotherapy & Trauma Clinic For A Psychoeducational Assessment?
We Explain the Results
Every assessment ends with a 90-minute feedback session. Your psychologist explains the purpose of each tool, what the results showed, and how the diagnostic criteria were met. You won’t be left to interpret the report on your own.
A Report That Gets You Accommodations
You receive a detailed, personalized report with your diagnosis, supporting scores, clinical observations, and specific recommendations. It’s written to help you access accommodations at school, university, or work.
We Understand Masking
Neurodevelopmental conditions often look different in people assigned female at birth, and years of masking can hide a learning disorder or ADHD. We take that into account at every step of the assessment.
The Whole Picture in One Assessment
Reading, writing, math, reasoning, memory, attention, and executive functioning are tested together. A math struggle can come from working memory, and a focus problem can come from a learning disorder, so we look at all of it.
Strategies for the Way You Learn
The recommendations in your report come from your own test profile: how to study, which accommodations to request, what to try at home, and where extra support will help most.
We Can Work With the School
With your consent, we send questionnaires to teachers during the assessment, and your psychologist may be able to review the results with school staff afterward, so the plan goes with your child into the classroom.
Reduced Fee Therapy | Halifax & Membertou NS
Our Psychoeducational Assessment Process
Step 1: Get in touch
Step 2: Talk with intake
Read mORE
We’ll learn what’s bringing you in and confirm a psychoeducational assessment is the right fit. You’re added to the waitlist, and we’ll tell you how long it’s likely to be.
Step 3: History interview
Read mORE
You and your psychologist go through background, areas of difficulty, and what you hope to learn. For children, this is a parent interview, and older kids may join in. It can happen at our clinic or by phone.
Step 4: Testing
Read mORE
In-person testing over one or two days in half-day sessions, sometimes more for younger children. It covers intelligence, problem-solving, reasoning, and academic skills, plus executive functioning for ages 8 and up. Breaks are built in, with room for sensory needs.
Step 5: Questionnaires and interviews
Read mORE
Teens and adults complete measures in the office or online. Parents complete them online, and with your consent, so does the school. Your psychologist may also speak with a teacher, or for adults, with one or two people who know you well.
Step 6: Scoring and report
Read mORE
Your psychologist scores everything, brings it together, and writes your report. Assessment fees are spread across five sessions, so there’s no large payment up front.
Step 7: Feedback
Read mORE
You meet for 90 minutes, in person or online, to go through your results and recommendations and sort out any outstanding questions. You leave with your report, a clear understanding of it, and a plan for what comes next. If it helps, your psychologist may review results with your child’s school.
Psychoeducational Assessment | Halifax & Membertou, NS
Questions About Psychoeducational Assessments
What happens in a psychoeducational assessment?
A registered psychologist uses clinical interviews, standardized tests, and questionnaires to look at how you or your child learn, think, and focus. It covers cognitive ability, academic skills, and executive functioning, and it can identify ADHD, learning disorders, intellectual disability, and giftedness. We look at the whole picture rather than one concern on its own.
How should we prepare?
You can’t study for it. If you have old report cards, past assessments, or medical records, bring them along, but it’s fine if you don’t. Rest well, eat beforehand, and show up as yourself. For kids, keep it simple: someone whose job is to figure out how they learn best is going to spend some time with them.
What does a psyched assessment cost?
Psychoeducational assessments are $3,725, including a $350 materials fee, or $4,625 with autism testing added. The assessment fee is split across five sessions. The materials fee is paid at your feedback session.
Do I need a referral from my doctor?
How long does the whole process take?
About eight weeks from your first interview with your psychologist to your feedback session. Testing usually takes one or two days, sometimes more for younger children.
Can I use the report for accommodations at school?
Yes. This is one of the most thorough types of assessment, and it’s the one educational institutions most often ask for. Our reports include the cognitive testing that schools and universities require, and they’re written with accommodation requests in mind. If your program has particular requirements, let us know at intake, and we’ll confirm before we begin.
How do I get accommodations at work after diagnosis?
We’ll provide a letter recommending the appropriate accommodations to share with your workplace.
Do you diagnose giftedness?
Giftedness isn’t an official diagnosis in Canada, so we don’t make a formal diagnosis. We can recognize the traits and signs associated with giftedness and provide documentation so that extended programming can be accessed where it’s available.
Can you assess my child in French Immersion or CSAP?
Ideally, a child in French-language schooling is tested by a clinician with French testing materials, which gives the most accurate, standardized result. Those clinicians are hard to find. If time matters and other options aren’t available, Dr. Ali can provide a semi-standardized assessment of French academic skills. Ask our intake team about this when you call.
What do we get at the end?
A detailed, personalized written report of 25 pages or more (30 or more if autism testing is included), with your diagnosis where one applies, supporting scores, clinical observations, and specific recommendations for school, work, treatment, and next steps. The report belongs to you.
Still have questions? We're happy to answer them.
Psychoeducational Assessment | Halifax & Membertou, NS
Life After A Psychoeducational Assessment
The word we hear most often after a feedback session is relief. From there, adults and families tell us they notice:
- Language for what they've been experiencing all along
- Accommodations at school or work that fit how they learn
- The right school placement or program for their child
- Informed decisions about medication and next steps
- Less blame for things that were never about effort
- Routines that work with their brain instead of against it
- Family members and teachers who understand them differently
- Shame that lifts, often for the first time in years
When you're ready to put a name to what's been getting in the way, we're ready to help you find it.
East Coast Psychotherapy & Trauma Clinic
How To Get Started
Here's the first one:
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Speak with us to ask questions or to book your consult or session.
Membertou
Halifax
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Fill out the contact form, and we'll get back to you within 24-48 business hours to discuss the next steps.
Finding the right fit matters, so our intake team takes the time to understand what you’re looking for before matching you with a clinician. Complete this form to begin.
201 Churchill Drive, Suite 205, Membertou, NS B1S 2M9
Meet us for therapy in Membertou and across Cape Breton, with online therapy anywhere in Nova Scotia.
3845 Joseph Howe Dr., Suite 209, Halifax, NS B3L 4H9
Offering in-person psychoeducational assessments in Halifax, with online support across Nova Scotia.